评论
打印
The latest figures show just how distant a prospect victory is right now. In the US, the lifetime risk of developing cancer is 42% in men and 38% in women, according to the American Cancer Society. The figures are even worse in the UK. According to Cancer Research UK, 54% of men and 48% of women will get cancer at some point in their lives.
最新的数据表明，人类离赢得“癌症战争”还有太远的距离。根据美国癌症协会(American Cancer Society)的最新数据统计，在美国，一个男性一生中患癌症的风险是42%，女性是38%。在英国，这一数字甚至更糟。根据英国癌症研究所（Cancer Research UK）的研究，54%的男性和48%的女性会在生命中某刻罹患癌症。
And cases are on the rise. As of 2015 there are 2.5 million people in the UK living with the disease, according to Macmillan Cancer Support. This is an increase of 3% each year, or 400,000 extra cases in five years.
病例数字也在上升。麦克米伦癌症援助机构（Macmillan Cancer Support）数字显示，2015年在英国有250万人为癌症患者。这个数字以每年百分之三的速度在增长，也就是说在过去的五年间新增了400,000 名癌症患者。
Figures like this show that cancer is not only extremely pervasive, but also becoming more and more common. But why will so many people develop the disease at some point in their lives?
此类数字显示癌症不仅非常普遍，而且越来越司空见惯。但是为什么会有那么多人罹患癌症呢？
To get to the answer, we must understand that cancer is an unfortunate by-product of the way evolution works. Large and complicated animals like humans are vulnerable to cancer precisely because they are large and complicated.
为了对此有更好的解释，我们必须明白一点，那就是癌症是人类进化过程的一个不幸的副产品。大而复杂的动物，如人类，容易受到癌症的攻击，正是因为他们体格庞大，机体复杂。
But even though it is evolutionary processes that have made cancer such a problem, it is also evolutionary thinking that is now leading to pioneering treatments that could stack the odds against cancer and in favour of our health.
但是即使癌症本身是进化过程导致的问题，我们依然可以用目前最先进的也是最前沿的想法去创造先进的治疗手段去对付癌细胞，提高治愈癌症的概率并提升我们的健康水平。
To understand how cancer exists at all, we need to go back to a fundamental process that occurs in our bodies: cell division.
要了解癌症是如何存在的，我们需要了解发生在我们身体内的一个最基本的过程：细胞分裂。
We each started out when an egg and sperm cell met and fused. Within a few days, that egg and sperm had turned into a ball containing a few hundred cells. By the time we reach adulthood about 18 years later, those cells have divided so many more times that scientists cannot agree, even to the nearest few trillion, exactly how many cells our bodies contain.
我们每个人都始于一个卵子和精子细胞的结合。在几天之内，这个卵子和精子就会变成一个包含有几百个细胞的囊。随着时间的推移，等我们到了18岁成年时，我们体内的细胞已经不断的分裂太多太多次，以至于即使是科学家们也无法就我们人体究竟有多少细胞数量达成一致意见，即使在几万亿数量级水平上，也无法达成一致。
Cell division in our bodies is very heavily controlled. For instance, when you were first growing your hands, some cells went through "cell suicide" – a process called apoptosis – to carve out the spaces between your fingers.
细胞分裂在身体内部是被非常严格控制的。举例来说，比如我们的手第一次成形是因为一部分细胞会通过“细胞自杀”的方式经历一个凋亡的过程，在两个手指中间的位置腾出空间来，从而形成手指。
Cancer is also all about cell division, but with one important difference. A cancerous cell breaks all the rules of controlled division that our other cells follow.
癌症与细胞分裂息息相关，两者之间的重要区别在于癌细胞打破了其他细胞严格遵循的细胞分裂的规则。
It is like they are a different organism, says developmental biologist Timothy Weil of the University of Cambridge in the UK. "The better that cell gets at dividing faster than its neighbours and gaining nutrients, the more successful it will be as a cancer, and the more likely it will survive and grow."
“就好像他们是另外一种有机体，”英国剑桥大学的生物科学家蒂莫西.韦尔（Timothy Weil）说。“细胞分裂速度越快就容易获得营养，也就越容易形成癌症，并且更容易存活与成长。”
Healthy cell division is marked by control and restraint, but cancerous cell division is wild, uncontrolled proliferation.
健康的细胞分裂被严格标记并面临限制，但是癌细胞的分裂是野蛮、失控式的繁殖和扩散。
